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Helloooooo, lovelies!

So after much debate, I've decided to move to a self-hosted blog on Wordpress. However, this isn't going to be an overnight transition. I'm too much of a planner and worry-wort to just pull a switheroo and assume all will go smoothly.

I just set up a Wordpress.com blog, http://mamaheartsbaby.blogspot.com. I'll hang out there while I research hosting and learn as much as I can about WP. I'm aiming to be up and fully running at http://mamaheartsbaby.com by the end of January. I've avoided WP forever, like Twitter, because I just didn't think I was savvy enough. After "mastering" Twitter, I feel like I can do anything. So bring it on, WP!

I'll no longer be posting here; I will leave this site up and running while I transition and a bit after I'm done. All of my archives will be accessible through my WP blog.

Join me as I become a WPer: http://mamaheartsbaby.wordpress.com!

I'm A Melting Pot

No serious post here just realizing how much Dessa melts my heart on a regular basis. Well, actually how both J and Dessa make me feel all warm and fuzzy. I think that holiday spirit is catching up with me.

How They Melt Me:

-Dessa talks to my grandpa on my cell all the time. I call him "Abuelo" and now she does too but it sounds more like "Wello"

-When I put make-up on, she imitates me and brushes her cheeks and does all sorts of funny things to her face with my closed pots of mineral make-up. She has a special make-up touch, too, like extra gentle and very focused.

-When we went to NYC last, I was about to put on Dessa's hat when J stopped me because he didn't want to ruin her hair before our "photo shoot".

-Driving 6 hours in one day for only 2 hours at our destination made me realize how much I love driving with my hubby - just shooting the shit and laughing and singing and being goofy.

-J was super excited to show me Dessa's new found love of the Rockettes. She twirls and kicks her little legs and claps so excitedly.

-J gets silly excited about getting Dessa Christmas presents. I keep telling him we can get her stuff for El Dia de Los Reyes but he wants it all NOW for her...lol.

-Dessa does this funny, "No, no, no" thing while urgently waving her hand at us. She must think we're totally clueless because she tells us "no, no, no" A LOT!

I could go on forever but our long day together yesterday made me realize how much I love my life. Just little things here and there, sprinkled throughout my day. Here's wishing for some snowflakes tomorrow, big giant sledding snowflakes!

Here's the first ever official shot of Dessa and J on MamaHeartsBaby. Long overdue and silly really since I plaster them both all over Facebook. Enjoy =)

Work In Progress

Sorry for the blogroll removal! When I uploaded this new theme, it got rid of all my widgets. Now I'm just on the fence of what to do next -

-update my blogroll here
-leave everything as is &continue blogging, while setting up a self-hosted WP blog
-leave everything as is & continue blogging, while setting up a free WP blog to later move to a self-hosted one

Grrrrr...what to do, what to do!

Stay tuned and please be patient while I work out the details...gracias =)

Save Handmade!

When I first read about this issue I think I brushed it off not really worrying much about it. However, when these ladies made it clear that wonderful, hand crafted children's items would literally become illegal, I stopped in my tracks. At first I thought it might just mean things like hand made building blocks and push toys and doll houses and stuffies. Then I learned more and realized it encompasses ALL items intended for children - bibs, onesies, burp cloths - it's insane! Small businesses, tiny mom and pop shops are going to have to close their doors and pay the price for the poor choices of larger companies who made poor choices in their manufacturing process. To say this is unfair barely covers it.

This is so far reaching that one of the best German based toy companies, Selecta, has already announced they will no longer be available in the US after January 1, 2009. Have you seen their work? It's a shame to think we won't have access to their wonderful craftsmanship.

I can't explain the details better than the awesome girls over at Cool Mom Picks so head on over and learn more about what you can do to help. Time's running out!

A Quick Rant

I'm a big supporter of all things mom made and small business and all that good stuff. So imagine my excitement at the site of the Snack Trap. Genius, no? No, not so genius. And this isn't a complaint because maybe it will work perfectly in several years but I guess by then we hopefully won't need any snack trapping gadgets.

The Snack Trap is designed to keep snacks trapped inside the cup. An hour after Dessa used it for the first time, Cheerios were all over the back seat of my car. I thought again this morning about how so not true to its name it is when at 5:30am Cheerios were strewn all over our carpet. And I own three of these suckers...oy vey!

Why Social Media Matters To Me

I don't run my own business, I don't work in the marketing department for anyone and I'm not trying to get or sell anything. So sometimes I wonder why social media matters so much to me. You'd think I have some sort of master plan; I don't.

I have a MySpace page (near defunct since I joined the next one), a Facebook page and most recently I signed up for Twitter, immediately followed by Twittermoms. I read Problogger and Mashable for fun. I'm a member of at least 5 mom communities. I can't stop myself; it's addicting.

I'd understand my fascination if at least I were in business and all this social media-ing amounted to an increase in sales, good PR, word of mouth publicity...but I'm not in any business. I think what it comes down to is that I don't want to get left behind. Kind of like when I was a kid and pagers were all the rage. My parents outlawed them as the tools of drug dealers and slutty girls; I never got one. I could feel that I was getting passed by by new technology and it sucked. I don't know what it was that I missed out on but I'm not letting social media pass me by. I think that by jumping in to it all I'll never become the grandparent who can't figure out how to program the TiVo.

A quick bit about Twitter. I avoided it forever because I was convinced it wasn't for me. Only really important people "tweet" right? And I figured it must be super complicated and waaaay over my head, right? Well I signed up this weekend and can I say I feel somewhat foolish for ignoring it for so long. I'm afraid I might be missing something since I think it's so easy...like I signed up for the newbie version and after 100 tweets they'll give me access to the real thing. Anywho...I'm a fan of the Twitter. Feel free to follow me: http://twitter.com/MamaHeartsBaby

I'm a Hobby Whore

I am a dreamer by nature. I'm really good at it because I love details and hammering things down. Take for instance my dream of being this stellar wedding/baby/pregnancy photographer. I fell in love with photography while planning my wedding and seeing the journalistic style of capturing special moments. I picked out my fave camera, worked out a plan to get clients, thought of great set ups for pictures - I had it all planned out short of a name.

Take for instance my obsession with wanting to learn to sew. Etsy is the evil demon behind it all. OMG! I can totally make quilts and kick ass dresses and stuffed toys. Just get me a sewing machine and I'll start cranking out goods. Or take my dream of wanting to start my own jewelry line. This one I don't know that I can let go of but we'll see. I love mommy jewelry, you know what I'm talking about - charms with initials and dates and birth stones and fingerprints. I'm all over it. I've gone so far as to start pricing from wholesalers how much it would be to get chains and blank charms to stamp.

I haven't done a one of them but I sure have dreamed about them. No doubt I'll eventually make my way to trying them but what I realize is that every hobby morphs into a crazy business plan. I need to just accept that I'm a hobby whore. Photography, sewing, jewelry, soap making, lotion making, don't get me started on graphic design. I need to take each for what it's for and just do it and enjoy it and then let it go...well unless it becomes my thing and I do it like forever...you know like knitting folks who really looooooove it. I don't know that I'll find that one hobby that I really love. Maybe I've already found it...maybe hobbies are my hobby.